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I jumped up and tromped as fast as I could through the snow, ignoring the pain I now felt in my ankle. When I reached Alice, I leaned over her. She lay flat on her back with a look of death in her faraway stare toward the sky.
“Why did I agree to do this?” she grumbled.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, looking quickly between her, Marge’s limp body, and the two sets of dog teams running in opposite directions with the sledges dragging behind them.
“Only my pride, Sylvie. Only my pride,” she answered.
“Good. Stay still. Don’t move. I need to check on Marge.”
I jumped up from Alice’s side and limped the extra few yards to where Marge was in a crumpled heap.
I dropped to my knees beside her. “Marge! Marge!”
When her eyes opened and she whispered, “Ouch,” I let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Oh, my God. I thought you were dead!”
With a groan, she sat up, spitting out a mouthful of snow as she wiped more from her eyes. “Not dead. Gonna have a hell of a headache though. But not dead. Whoa. I see stars.”
“Do I need to check you for injuries? Tell me what to do! You’re the nurse!”
Marge sat silently for a moment, and I knew she was taking stock of her body. Finally, she shook her head. “Nothing broken. I can wiggle all my extremities. Probably a concussion, but all in all, not bad.”
“Oh, thank God,” I said again, my body going limp as I collapsed beside her.
“What the hell happened?” she asked while she wiped more snow from her face. “All of a sudden your team appeared, and no one was driving it!”
“Yeah,” Alice said as she strolled toward us in her giant fur suit. “What the hell happened? You almost killed us!”
Before I could answer, a little pink, puffy visage appeared as Doris came huffing around the corner. “Sylvie! I fell off! I lost my balance! I fell off! I’m so sorry! We took the turn too fast, and I fell off!”
Marge narrowed her eyes. “Doris. Doris happened.”
Alice clenched a fist and snarled out, “Doris.”
When Doris saw us all heaped together in a broken bunch, she stopped and clasped her hands over her mouth. “Oh, no. Oh, no. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Is this my fault? This is my fault, isn’t it?”
Marge didn’t answer and turned her angry glare on me. “Whyin thehelldid you letDorisdrive?”
I shrunk and sucked the air through my teeth. “She was feeling bad about Scotland. I just wanted to show her I trusted her.”
“And how did that work out for you?” Alice arched an eyebrow up toward the fluffy rim of her oversized fur hat. “For all of us?”
“I’m sorry,” I said, joining Doris in her chorus of apologies.
“Are you hurt, Doris?” I asked as she reached us.
She pressed her hands onto her pink snowpants and puffed to catch her breath. “I don’t think so. The snow was soft where I landed. I’m only out of breath from trying to catch up to you. I tried so hard, but you were going so fast. I’m sorry, Sylvie.”
“Sorry,Sylvie?” Marge grumbled as she touched the center of her head. “I’m the one who is gonna look like a freaking unicorn thanks to your ‘driving’ skills. Again.”
Doris burst into tears, then collapsed into a little pink pile, sobbing into her giant mittens. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt! I told you I shouldn’t drive, Sylvie!”
“Hey, hey, hey.” I rolled through the snow to reach her. When I slipped an arm around her, she cried harder and put her head on my shoulder. “It’s okay, Doris. It’s an accident. No one is seriously hurt.”
“Says you,” Marge retorted, but I shut her up with a stern stare.
“Doris is sorry. It was an accident, and she didn’t mean it. Now, since we’re all okay, we need to go find our dogs before they get stuck in the woods somewhere. Doris and I will go after our dogs this way, and you two go after your dogs that way.”
